Google Deal With Reddit
Google is said to have secured a deal valued at $60 million annually, granting the tech giant immediate access to Reddit’s data and utilizing Google’s AI technology to enhance Reddit’s search capabilities in real time.
As part of a fresh collaboration, Google is acquiring AI training data from Reddit. In a recent update on Thursday, Reddit disclosed its initiative to offer Google “more efficient ways to train models.” Through this collaboration, Google will gain access to Reddit’s data API, enabling the retrieval of real-time content from the Reddit platform. This integration offers Google an effective and organized means to tap into Reddit’s extensive repository of existing content. Additionally, it empowers Google to present Reddit’s content in innovative ways across its various products.
As part of the partnership, Reddit will also have access to Vertex AI, Google’s AI-powered service designed to enhance companies’ search results. Reddit assures that this development does not alter the terms of its data API, which continues to prohibit developers or companies from accessing it for commercial purposes without prior approval.
Reddit API
In a conversation with The Verge last year regarding Reddit’s API changes and the ensuing protests, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman mentioned, “The API usage is about covering costs, and data licensing is a new potential business for us.” This indicates Reddit’s consideration of exploring additional revenue-generating collaborations in the future.
These modifications led to the closure of numerous third-party Reddit clients and triggered a widespread protest across the platform, with thousands of subreddits temporarily going dark. Reddit justified these changes, citing concerns that major AI companies were scraping its data without compensation.
In an official statement, Reddit clarified that the recent partnership with Google “does not change Reddit’s Data API Terms or Developer Terms.” It emphasized that API access will continue to be free for non-commercial usage, reinforcing the platform’s commitment to maintaining accessibility for non-commercial developers.
Towards the end of last week, rumors surfaced indicating that Reddit had struck a fresh deal to vend its data for $60 million annually to “an unnamed large AI company.” Initially, many, myself included, speculated that OpenAI might be the recipient, as part of its wider efforts to contest Google’s search supremacy. However, it was revealed that the recipient was indeed Google. The agreement is poised to integrate Reddit information into both Google Search and it’s advancing Gemini models.
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As per Google
“Over the years, we’ve seen that people increasingly use Google to search for helpful content on Reddit to find product recommendations, travel advice, and much more. We know people find this information useful, so we’re developing ways to make it even easier to access across Google products. This partnership will facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information that will make our products more helpful for our users and make it easier to participate in Reddit communities and conversations.”
Indeed, it’s a strategic move by Google, considering the growing trend of users appending their Google searches with “site:www.reddit.com” to access more direct user experiences and human insights. This practice has become prevalent, especially as the reliability of on-site product reviews has come into question.
Searching Reddit provides forum links that offer authentic human conversations about products and their features, curated through upvotes and downvotes to highlight the most pertinent matches. This capability represents a significant value addition for search functionality. Moreover, in the era of generative AI, where numerous product review sites are employing AI bots to produce more difficult-to-detect fake endorsements, the value of authentic user discussions on Reddit becomes even more pronounced.
